Sunday, December 30, 2012

Ursula Mittens

I did, of course, buy 'Colours of Shetland' by Kate Davies about half an hour after it went on sale (there are some perks to being up early, though they usually happen more in the summer than the winter) so I got a signed one, which I wasn't expecting at all!.

The book is lovely, with beautiful photographs and well laid out pages. Kate's essays are informative and entertaining as usual. The one which goes with this - and the main pattern, for a cardigan these mittens match - is about Ursula Venables (writer, naturalist and craftswoman) who I knew nothing about at all until now. I'd quite like to read her memoirs myself.

I knit this in Jamieson & Smith /Hanne Falkenberg/Rowan I had in the giant stash so it was - as with my Rams and Yowes - a way to use up a bit more of it (though despite my best efforts, it doesn't appear to be shrinking). They've come out looking very '1940s', which is in the design. My choice of a grey background with red, blue and charcoal pattern though, makes them look, I think, a bit more 'urban', or even like mittens made from re-used yarn, as if they were a 'make do and mend' project.

I'm not sure why I went with this muted palette, I have white/cream yarn, and much brighter colours in my piles of available materials - and heaven knows it's been grey enough round here for weeks - but this is what I did:

Taken during a brief window in the deluge

My shed bolt is, I think, actually rusted shut

I fear they won't be seeing a Shetland winter any time soon, but they'll do just as well for winter in Oxfordshire (and at least wet wool still keeps you warm):